CAR congressmen make third bid for autonomy

This even amidst lingering questions on grassroots readiness and uncertain unity if self-governance is really what highland Cordillerans want.

All of the seven Cordillera congressmen filed House Bill (HB) 4649, “An Act Establishing the Cordillera Autonomous Region” just in time before the session in Congress goes on recess.

HB 4649 was drafted by a technical working group (TWG) composed of the chiefs-of-staff of the Cordillera lawmakers, repre–sentatives of the Regional Deve–lopment Council (RDC) and provincial and city government units, in a technical writeshop arranged by the CAR regional National Economic and Develop–ment Authority (NEDA) office here.

NEDA-Cordillera said suggest–ions brought up during the RDC-led provincial, city and sectoral pre-summit consultation were re–viewed and integrated into the working draft—the previously filed HB 5595 which never get into the grind because of appa–rent lack of support from the grassroots and even among Cordillera officials including Malacañang then.

The TWG agreed that as long as a proposed provision was not controversial, such recommen–dation must be accommodated in the working draft.

According also to the NEDA, the Cordillera Congressmen evaluated the output of the technical writeshop and finalized the draft bill before submitting it in the committee on local government.